Ghostcrawler Discusses Upcoming Major Class Changes

Now that many players are level 85, Blizzard has been receiving a ton of feedback (both positive and negative) regarding their classes, specs and other balancing / playability concerns. They've taken a lot of these concerns, with their own review, and Ghostcrawler has just posted a very inclusive and informative post detailing developer impressions of the current state of the game and various aspects of it, projecting potential and possible changes we'll see in the near future. Definitely worth a read!

We have a lot of players at 85 now doing everything from Heroic dungeons to rated Battlegrounds, and the class design team is starting to prepare our list of items to investigate for our next patch.

Before you dive down into the meat below (not really a pleasant image, that), be advised that we’re still early in the preliminary stages. The patch isn’t coming out tomorrow. I wrote this before the end of the year and other things may have cropped up in the meantime. Just because your class or pet problem isn’t mentioned below doesn’t mean we won’t address it.

Find out who's getting buffed and what's getting nerfed after the break!

We have a lot of players at 85 now doing everything from Heroic dungeons to rated Battlegrounds, and the class design team is starting to prepare our list of items to investigate for our next patch.

Before you dive down into the meat below (not really a pleasant image, that), be advised that we’re still early in the preliminary stages. The patch isn’t coming out tomorrow. I wrote this before the end of the year and other things may have cropped up in the meantime. Just because your class or pet problem isn’t mentioned below doesn’t mean we won’t address it.

PvE

We’re happy with damage overall. We have very few traditional tank and spank fights (even Argaloth likes to parry melee) so it’s hard to get consistent numbers without very large data sets. Still, we see Survival hunters and Unholy DKs on top of a lot of single target fights. Arcane, Marksman, and Beastmaster damage is too low. Retribution, Shadow, and Fire and Frost mage damage might be too low, but we’re still watching them. We aren’t seeing a lot of Subtlety rogues in PvE yet, so that sample size is still small. On fights where there is a lot of area damage, Demonology warlocks, Frost DKs and possibly Survival hunters are all too high. Shadow priest AE, mostly due to a weak Mind Sear, feels too low.

Healing in PvE is working out pretty much as intended. There are some Heroic dungeon bosses that are probably tougher than the required item level average permits. In general, you might have a tough time upon zoning into a Heroic dungeon with a bunch of strangers as soon as Dungeon Finder permits, especially if your group isn’t willing to communicate and work together. We want Heroics to be challenging -- if you want to zerg the content, stick to normal dungeons.

Tank balance overall seems good at this point in time. Threat seems to be in a good place -- good tanks don’t have much of a problem, but they can’t “phone it in” either. We’re seeing all four tanks get a lot of use, even on Heroic raid fights. That could change as more guilds are able to make serious heroic attempts.

PvP

The larger health pools, decreased impact of Mortal Strike debuffs, and slower healing are all having the desired effect in PvP. Burst damage has its place, but doesn’t determine the outcome of every encounter. There are several individual abilities that we aren’t happy with in PvP.

We’re keeping a close eye on dispels. We still like the design of making dispels more of a commitment rather than liberally sprinkling around dispel resistance or consequences for every class. Defensive dispels (removing a debuff) generally feel good, but we think offensive dispels (removing an enemy buff) feel too powerful, especially for DPS specs. In particular, Purge and Spellsteal will probably get nerfed.

We’re also looking at crowd control, interrupts, and self-healing in PvP. It’s possible we’ll reduce the durations of some crowd control effects, especially the area effect ones, and decrease the duration of interrupts.

Priests are a little weak in PvP, especially at mobile healing. We have made some changes to glyphs and talents to enhance their survivability and instant healing.

We also want to make sure the epic PvP gear isn’t too easy for just anyone to obtain, given that the PvE endgame content is more challenging than it was in Lich King. We don’t want the player base to just migrate to the most efficient epic delivery mechanism; we want you to participate in what you find most enjoyable.

Stats

We’ll make a pass to make stats that aren’t attractive (but are supposed to be) more attractive. For example, we don’t want Assassination rogues to dismiss crit or Feral tanks to dismiss haste. We are considering making some physical attacks such as Lacerate, Steady Shot, and Slam scale with haste.

Mastery is a new stat for us, and there are a few specs that don’t value it enough. In some cases (e.g. Combat rogues), the design for mastery is fine and we just need to buff the effects to make it more desirable. In others, we don’t think it’s possible to buff mastery enough in its current form. For example, the Retribution mastery, Hand of Light, is fun, but it doesn’t contribute enough damage. To make it contribute enough damage, the proc would need a very high chance, which then can cause paladins to devalue other sources of Holy Power. Instead, we are redesigning Retribution mastery to add a percentage of the damage of Templar’s Verdict, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm as Holy damage (which also plays better with Inqusition). Because Hand of Light is fun, however, we are going to change Divine Purpose as a chance to proc Hand of Light instead of a chance for extra Holy Power (which will also remove a little of the randomness from the rotation). Unholy DKs are another spec for whom mastery just isn’t working out. Our current intent is to redesign their mastery so that their attacks cause more damage to diseased targets (in a similar manner to the Restoration druid mastery).

Potpourri

Some additional class-specific tweaks (keeping in mind this is not the full list):

Even after we fixed their mastery, Feral druid bleeds still do a lot of damage and are undispellable. We plan to shift some of that damage back to main attacks. They are also a little too hard to control. Given that they are already hard to root, snare, or polymorph, we think the fear immunity from Berserk is too much.

Arms warrior burst damage might still be too high in PvP, while we don’t have a great way to adjust their sustained damage for PvE. The Lambs to the Slaughter talent is a good place to address this. We also might nerf warrior stuns.

We think Arms and Fury warriors are getting too much damage out of Heroic Strike. We want it to be clear that it’s a rage dump and not make it the hardest hitting ability.

For Holy priests, we’re increasing Chakra’s duration and changing Surge of Light so it can now from Flash Heal and Greater Heal and can crit.

We’re making some additional buffs, such as Pain Suppression and Barkskin, undispellable.

Comments

Comment by Rouen

In the world of Cata dungeons and raiding, personal mistakes quickly become raid mistakes. If you cannot see how that works, here is a simple example to help convey understanding.

1. You are a DPS. You stand in the fire more often than is necessary.2. Healer has to waste mana on you to keep you alive. Yes, I said waste, that is the correct verbage.3. Healer now doesn't have enough mana to last the encounter. The entire group dies.

A group that works a heroic dungeon boss encounter correctly means the healer should never go OOM because damage is minimized and the amount of damage being taken is what is actually intended. Any roasting in a fire is not intended and will put a hurting on your healer, and as a result, your group suffers as a whole.

If you cannot understand that this is the correct play to way, then I and the rest of the community who have adjusted would welcome your decision to hang up your spurs and play something else.

Otherwise, welcome to Cataclysm!

Comment by rebhound

on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:03:04 -0600

I play(ed) a Holy priest lvl 85. I went against a lvl 85 ENV and ran out of mana and died. My kill/damage spells did little damage. A Holy priest doesn't have much to chose from. The damage spells were as effective at doing damage as one flea on a great dane. The lvl 85 ENV had half of his life left when I died. I switched to Shadow and killed the same lvl 85 ENV with no problem. I had half my life and half my mana left when I was done. So in order to quest, I need to be configured as a Shadow priest. If I want to play DPS, I would play my lock. I chose Holy because I wanted to be a healer but that spec is now pretty much useless. In the BG, someone looks at me as Holy and I die. The BS factor >>>> Fun factor which means that I am seriously considering quitting the game.

Comment by Danq

on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 16:40:15 -0600

I dps just fine. I suggest you stop crying and get some gear.

Comment by Rhyna

on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:05:42 -0600

Rhyna said:Gnub I hardly or not at all use Earthquake, it just costs too much. When I did use the spell it was in the case of mobs coming in and surrounding the group.Alright. Just wanting to make sure - it is indeed incredibly expensive, and should only be used when you can get the full out of it. :)As for the glyph issue I had forgotten for a brief moment what Glyph of Elemental Mastery really dealt with. What I was thinking was how there was a glyph that dealt with the mastery yet enhance & resto shammies doesn't have a glyph to work along side their form of mastery, if that made sense.That's what I was thinking. Makes perfect sense. No biggie though.As well with resto, the two new healing spells Healing Surge and healing rain are crazy in the amount they cost to use them that it's no use even using.Same case as with Earthquake, basically. Mind you, I haven't healed a lot in Cataclysm, but my understanding was that you pay for the quick and effective healing in mana cost. If you can spare the mana, it's incredibly useful, but it's not something that should be relied on. Especially not Healing Surge.Rhyna said:I oom for what reason idk. I use the lightening shields, the glyph for them, the talent for them, shoot I even pop my mana totem as well. But what gear stat do you have on when in Elem spec? Because my regen in Elem is horrible when comparing it to my resto gear :(Basically, it's because our mana regeneration is given otherwise. You get mana from throwing Lightning Bolts, and if need be, you can use Thunderstorm. The odd use of Chain Lightning (which I hope you havn't got in your single target rotation), will drain your mana. Again, Earthquake is incredibly taxing here, but there should usually be mana enough for a few of them, if the encounter requires it.

Gnub I Just wanna say thanks :) ^_^ wish there was a +1 on this thread for your post/replies to mine. thanks again

Comment by Vath

on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:24:29 -0600

Ug, please don't remove the fear immunity from feral berserk. That might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me.

Comment by menemew

on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 14:49:26 -0600

Really? Healing is working as intended?

Going OOM halfway through a regular boss fight is what you wanted?

Obviously, if you're going oom that fast, you're failing or you're grp is failing and taking too much dmg. Did some raid encounters, we did it close to perfect, all our healers had at least 50 % of their mana left when bosses were done. Some attempts before that, when we failed, DPS, tank and the healers themselves took unnecessary dmg so that healers went oom and we wiped.

Comment by Xiamaru

on Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:24:53 -0600

Healing working as intended? Brilliant! Healing Normal Dungeons even BEFORE the gear-cap for Heroics is a faceroll as a Paladin. Holy Light, Shock, Glory and Judgement whenever you are bored had me leave every fight with +90% mana.

Now Heroics... Is pretty much the same. leave fights with at least 50 % mana on almost all fights. Granted, a few of the encounters push me lower, or force me to prioritize Judgement far more than others, but in general, healing is a piece of cake, waiting to be eaten. Stopped tanking as the same Paladin because I often couldn't survive well enough, and healers quickly dried out on mana, so I switched to healing instead, and it's going insanely well. I actually feel stronger now than I did in Wrath, and that's while I still have problems using Shock and Glory whenever I can/got sufficient HP.

Oh, and I'm topping everyone off. In my experience, there is little-to-no reason not to do this. Why? It allows me to use nothing but Holy Light all the time, as I don't suddenly find a dps getting dangerously low because he can't see the spell effects on the ground. The last Heroic went without even a single Divine Light, and Flash of Light isn't even on my action bar. CDs ftw ?

Comment by Sarneraa

on Sat, 01 Jan 2011 06:27:36 -0600

And nothing on Rogue PvP.....Sub damage or Muti mobility? Not issues?

"Hello! I'm A Rouge, I get one shotted by Make Up Remover"

Man, where can I buy make remover in Org?

Comment by IzuralBD

on Sat, 01 Jan 2011 22:05:00 -0600

I'm sensing alot of QQ in this thread....And its all rubbish.

Healing is working as intended in my mind. Tanking has never been better (22k cleaves? OMNOMNOM) and DPS (bar ret) is fine.

People QQing about healing either a) spam heal everyone to 100% in each encounter, for no reason, and wonder why they're OOM or b) have to spam heal DPS classes that are too stupid too move from unnessecary damage.

Basically, relearn to heal again. DPS can live at 70% hp (depending on the encounter), and learn to use your damage mitigation spells. If i see one more holy preist NOT shielding me just because their Holy and not Disc I will explode.

And yes, some of the bosses in heroics are scaled high, but after all, would it be HEROIC if they were not hard? If your struggling, farm the easy bosses for gear (or y'know, stop being lazy and faceroll normal instances for rep?) then come back. A week ago, I was struggling with Lost City and SFK, now we pwn them.

TL;DR - Learn to play the game again and stop QQing because you can't faceroll heroic content ¬¬

Comment by Scyllair

on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:44:54 -0500

"To reduce mage control, we are discussing reducing the duration of Frost Nova and Ring of Frost."

/love

Ghostcrawler, will you marry me? hahaha

Comment by Scyllair

on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:52:33 -0500

I play(ed) a Holy priest lvl 85. I went against a lvl 85 ENV and ran out of mana and died. My kill/damage spells did little damage. A Holy priest doesn't have much to chose from. The damage spells were as effective at doing damage as one flea on a great dane. The lvl 85 ENV had half of his life left when I died. I switched to Shadow and killed the same lvl 85 ENV with no problem. I had half my life and half my mana left when I was done. So in order to quest, I need to be configured as a Shadow priest. If I want to play DPS, I would play my lock. I chose Holy because I wanted to be a healer but that spec is now pretty much useless. In the BG, someone looks at me as Holy and I die. The BS factor >>>> Fun factor which means that I am seriously considering quitting the game.